A top Israeli Air Force officer provided operational context to the unusual Arrow intercept this past weekend of a Syrian SA-5 surface-to-air missile. The Arrow anti-ballistic missile system, jointly developed by the U.S. and Israel, was designed to fight Scuds, but not anti-aircraft missiles.
Speaking with reporters on Monday, the officer explained that the Syrian SAM launched against Israeli fighter aircraft “behaved like a ballistic threat [with] an altitude, range and ballistic trajectory” that mimicked the Scud-class targets that the Arrow 2 interceptor was designed to kill.
Source Link: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/383789
